Take the "Off" Out of Your Offseason!

August is quickly coming to an end and Labor Day is just around the corner. For people in the industry (especially in the Midwestern and Northern states) this means one of two things. Mum season is about to start or that the selling season is pretty much dead for the year. Sure there might be poinsettias and other special crops to worry about from now until April, but without the need for herbaceous plant material the market is reasonably shut for the year.

As anyone in the industry knows, once one season ends the next begins. Today’s post deals with staying connected to your customer even when things aren’t in season. Trust me, if you can keep the name of your business relevant in the minds of your customers through the winter, you’ll be the first place they look to next spring. How do you stay connected? You already know what I am going to say, but I’ll say it anyway: through Social Media!

Through the use of Social Media pages and blogs your business can keep people up to date on interesting things that are happening in the industry and new products that will be available next spring. Also this time of year can prove to be a great time to boost trust with clients of businesses that sell perennials. For example: the main concern of anyone growing any sort of perennial is its hardiness. If your business does a lot of perennial business why not make a name for yourself and make some helpful videos for consumers displaying proper techniques and tips for making sure that their perennials will reappear next spring? Or in January and February why not make some videos displaying how to protect early emerging perennials from damage? Videos like this provide value to the end consumer and can help establish a relationship of trust. They are valuable to any company in that market channel because they can help establish pull through.

Another easy way to stay in the mind of your customer is to put your product listing for the spring onto one or more of your Social Media pages. Highlight a product or two each month and post a couple different pictures about it each week. For growers this allows retailers to see through interaction what products are going to be hot next spring. If you are a grower and throw up a picture of a brand new Begonia variety that you’ll be offering and it gets hundreds of likes and shares retailers will know this is a product with a lot of interest and will be more likely to try it and order your product next spring or later this fall.

Also the winter is a time for the 2 H’s: Holidays and Humor. Stay relevant by posting cute holiday images involving plants or your products. From my experience these posts ALWAYS get lots of attention. You may not think people are going on Facebook on Christmas, but for Generation Y, Facebook is one of the only ways they send holiday wishes. So if they are on Facebook posting and so are you there is a great chance they will see your post and again be reminded of your products/services. As for the other “H”, we all know that in a lot of places January and February can be cold and depressing. People need to be cheered up. That’s why if you can make people smile with a cute garden joke or photo then you are only getting further ahead of your competition. Research says that the greatest impressions come not from how you look, but how you make people feel, so make your customers happy!

I know this post is a little preemptive, but it’s better to start thinking about this stuff now ahead of time. If you get to January and just start thinking about this kind of stuff, you’re probably too late. As we get deeper into the fall and winter we will undoubtedly be talking about more of this kind of stuff. For now however enjoy the sun and have a great Labor Day weekend!

You can always find me all over the internet! Email: mday55@gmail.com ; Twitter @mday55 ; LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233 ; and shoot me some +K on Klout if you think this was/is worthwhile!